How Do You Solve A Problem Like Cliven Bundy?

Robert Duvall was born to play Cliven Bundy. The story of Cliven Bundy’s stand against the federal government has all the components of a great movie, except one: we don’t have an ending. Will it end in tragedy like the Branch Davidian standoff outside Waco, or will the ending be triumphant and peaceful?

If you haven’t followed the story, here’s a summary: Cliven Bundy’s family started its ranch northeast of what is now Las Vegas in 1877. Their cattle have grazed on the surrounding government land ever since. In 1993, the Bureau of Land Management tried to buy Cliven’s grazing rights to protect the desert tortoise. Cliven refused to sell. Then the BLM revoked the grazing rights. Cliven never applied for them to be renewed, and his cattle continued to graze on the land. The courts upheld the revocation of the grazing rights, and last fall gave Cliven 45 days to remove his cattle from government land. He didn’t remove them. The fines and fees that Cliven owes now total more than a million dollars. On April 5, 2014, the BLM began an operation to seize Cliven’s cattle. BLM Law Enforcement Rangers and Special Agents came, as did people who sympathized with Cliven. An armed standoff followed. On April 12, the BLM decided not to execute the court’s order, citing a “serious concern about the safety of employees and members of the public.” (The above is gleaned from Jamie Fuller’s April 15 post on the Washington Post blog “The Fix.”)

On April 14, on KRNV television in Reno, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told reporter Samantha Boatman, "Well, it's not over. We can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it. So it's not over” (MyNews4.com).

Senator Reid’s has asserted that people can’t be allowed to get away with breaking the law. The assertion is, of course, false.

If Harry Reid says that it’s not over, you can be pretty sure that it’s not over. But what to do? Viewed strictly as a legal matter, Cliven’s an outlaw. To many Americans, however, Cliven’s cause appears to be just; to some, it’s worth fighting for. Even if you set aside accusations of nepotism against Reid and family, the influence of Chinese money, and the manipulation of the EPA, Cliven has many supporters who simply believe that the federal government has grown too big for its britches. With the addition of these viral accusations, proven or not, the number of supporters grows, as does their enthusiasm for the cause. How is this problem to be solved without bloodshed? I think I know a way. (To find out more about the allegations, start here.)

The solution lies in Senator Reid’s assertion that people can’t be allowed to get away with breaking the law. The assertion is, of course, false. People are allowed to get away with breaking the law. An example comes to mind.

On June 15, 2012, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, sent a memo to three of her underlings telling them that illegal immigrants with certain characteristics would be allowed to have work permits and a renewable two-year deferral of removal from the country. On that same day, President Barack Obama announced the change on TV from the lawn of the White House. It was thought at the time that about 800,000 people who had entered the country illegally would benefit from this memo, which was referred to as an act of prosecutorial discretion. (A summary of that act and an overview of prosecutorial discretion can be found in my earlier Liberty piece “Prosecutorial Indiscretion.”)

So. President Obama has shown Senator Reid the way to a triumphant and peaceful ending. All that needs to happen is for the Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell to send a memo to the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (Neil Kornze, Senator Reid’s chief aide until March of this year). The memo need only say that Cliven Bundy is to be allowed to have his grazing permit back and that all fees and fines levied against him are forgiven. To make things “just so,” President Obama would have to announce this act of prosecutorial discretion on the White House lawn. I think the President could be convinced to play himself in the movie.

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About this Author

S.H. Chambers is a cartoonist whose books Mock Hypocrisies, Zeitgeist Kebab, and Entertaining Blasphemies are available at shchambers.com. Over the last twenty years, thousands of his cartoons have appeared in Liberty, National Review, Mouth, and Bostonia, among others.